Cook gets life term for killing elderly woman

The Court of Additional Sessions Judge has sentenced Kailash Chand Bhatt, a native of Almora district, Uttarakhand, to life imprisonment for the murder of 98-year-old Joginder Kaur in Sector 8 here in 2021. The court has also imposed a fine of Rs 40, 000 on the convict.

The case was registered on a complaint filed by Tejinder Singh, a relative of the deceased. He stated that on August 6, 2021, his wife Sukhdev Kaur received a phone call from Bhavna, who worked as the victim’s caretaker at the house in Sector 8-B. They reached the house where Bhavna told them that someone had stabbed Joginder Kaur with a knife.

They found that there was blood, a knife and the household stuff lying scattered at the place.

Bhawna told the police that as usual, she had gone for a walk at 6:30 pm. When she returned around 7:30 pm, she found Joginder Kaur covered in blood and a blood-stained knife lying nearby.

The police cracked the case within a week with the arrest of the accused who lived in the servants’ quarters in the same area.

The police said the accused worked as a cook at a house in Sector 15. He was in dire straits after losing his job due to the Covid pandemic.

Finding a prima facie case, the court framed charges against the accused under sections 302, 460, 411 of the IPC. During the trial, the Public Prosecutor said the prosecution had proved the case beyond the shadow of a reasonable doubt.

Chandigarh